Shore's TNA Impact Hitlist: Matt Morgan and Mr. Anderson face off, Hulk Hogan puts over hardcore wrestling, Raven makes a surprising turn, Eric Young has wood, and Motor City Machine Guns vs. Beer Money should be a promotional video for new fans

By Chris Shore

TNA Impact Hits

Motor City Machine Guns vs. Beer Money: Was there any question what the match if the night was? Hell, without seeing Smackdown I'm ready to call this the match of the week. As a general rule, I'm not a fan of the TNA style of wrestling, especially on Impact. While the style is very uptempo and fun, it also leads to a lot of no selling which is my ultimate complaint. That happened here too, but these two teams somehow made it work, and work very well. If TNA ever makes it to the big time, they will have to point back to these two teams as key components of their rise.

Opening Segment: This had its problems. The Bubba Ray love fest went on entirely too long, and Hogan sounded like a tool when talking about hardcore and the 90s. Nevertheless, this is still a hit because it was still entertaining for what it was. I appreciate TNA trying to make Hardcore Justice a part of the whole company, and yet also a stand alone vehicle for the ECW last stand. I don't think they have the writing team to pull it off, but I appreciate the effort. And I think Dreamer is probably going to do a good job with the show.

Matt Morgan vs. Mr. Anderson: The verbal exchange between these two was well done. The handicap match was a train wreck, but the verbal exchange was good. Morgan is a star, or at least should be. He has the look, can go in the ring, and is fair to meddling on the mic. Anderson is almost always a good foil for whoever he faces, and he showed it again tonight. These two could have a great feud with a little better booking.

Raven: Anybody see this coming? I mean, it was obvious when he came out with the chair that he was going to attack Dreamer, but I mean prior to his actually running out. I sure didn't, and that's a big deal. I'm interested to see how this plays out. I've never been a fan of Raven, but he can create situations that are interesting when he's handled correctly. I hope this doesn't mean we get a split EV 2.0 faction because that almost certainly means the gimmick will continue after the PPV. And TNA does not need that at all.

TNA Impact Misses

Crazy Eric Young: You will have to forgive my lack of Eric Young history knowledge, but apparently this is his second run as a lunatic. I had one thought while watching this: Brian Gewirtz must be giggling his ass off. I bet that idiot wishes he could have Santino throw a mannequin at someone every week. And that is why it is a bad thing. Anything that tool finds funny is generally garbage. I don't know if Young is being punished, or if he gets off on this kind of stuff, but whenever you make Orlando Jordan look normal, the act has gone too far.

Angelina Love vs. Sarita: At least it's nice to know WWE doesn't hold the patent on bad women's matches. One of the benefits of the TNA style of wrestling is that it makes the women look good as a general rule. But sometimes you just have bad matches, and this was one of them. Even though there is a back story here, it really wasn't expanded upon to create the right tension, and then the match was just boring. Even the Impact Zone crowd was unusually quiet for this match. I'll mark this down as a fluke, and hope it doesn't happen again.

Fourtune: So let's run through the list, shall we? TNA now has an ECW faction, the Four Horsemen, a Television Title, and terrible booking. All of you people who sent me hate mail when I called TNA WCW-Lite owe me an apology. This group is terrible, and the way it has been booked is even worse. Don't get me wrong, they are some studs as far as wrestlers go. But the group dynamic is dead in wrestling today, and stables are always booked incorrectly. If you remember the original Four Horsemen, it just sort of happened. There was no push to make a group and then they formed. They started running together and then poof, the most awesome stable in the history of wrestling was formed. Yes, the nWo was bigger and arguably more important, but they never approached the awesomeness of the Horsemen. And this attempt to relive those moments is just like Flair, broken down and sad to watch.

Abyss vs. Tommy Dreamer: This is more of a personal thing because I hate weapon matches. The match was OK for what it was, but weapons matches, especially with Tommy Dreamer, is like watching old people have sex. You are horrified by what you see, yet you can't quite look away because you know a hip could be broken at any minute. I just hope everybody gets their extreme bumps out of their system next weekend so we can move past this sillyness. Fire does not make a good wrestling match, it makes it dangerous and illogical.

Overall Show: I've seen good episodes of Impact, and this wasn't one of them. MCM and Beer Money saved it from being a complete loss, but as a whole it was disappointing. I will say I have seen much, much worse in the past. But TNA can do better than this, and as I always say, I really hope they get it together soon.